Florida Thoroughbred

Charlene R. Johnson

In a relatively short span of time, less than twenty years, central Florida's Marion County went from being nothing but swampland to being second only to Lexington, Kentucky, in the production of quality Thoroughbreds. The meteoric rise of Ocala and its dominance in the Thoroughbred world is chronicled by Charlene Johnson in the wonderful book Florida Thoroughbred, a must-read for American fans of Thoroughbred racing.

While the book itself gives a comprehensive look at the state of things in Florida from the pre-depression attempts to open a Thoroughbred track in Miami (which later became Hialeah, one of the great showplaces of Thoroughbred racing, now unfortunately defunct) to Unbridled's 1990 Breeders' Cup Classic win, the book focuses on Ocala, and the two figures who started it on the road to where it is today. One of them was Thoroughbred breeder Charles Rose, whose Rosemere Farm was the first major Thoroughbred outpost in Ocala. The other was Needles, the first Florida-bred to win the Kentucky Derby. Both Rose and Needles are colorful figures who are great fun to read about, and their exploits run through the book like the storied limestone veins of Ocala upon which Rose made his initial fortune.

There's really not much else to be said here; Johnson has given us a fine and eminently readable history of the Thoroughbred breeding industry in Florida. With any luck, University Press of Florida will try to capitalize on the sudden popularity of horseracing, thanks to Seabiscuit and Funny Cide, and get a paperback edition of this printed and distributed through a major house. Even if they don't, it's worth tracking down a copy of the original pressing. This is a fine piece of work.